The Roman Trial: Pilate and Barabbas

On Passover morning the Jewish leaders sentenced Jesus to death for blasphemy. Being that it was illegal for them to execute capital punishment, they decided to send him to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. The first face-off between the two powers has begun – Christ and Cesar. Pilate's leading line of questioning, "Are you the king of the Jews?" suggests a tone of incredulity; he cannot believe that Jesus could be a political power figure. Though Jesus is indeed a king, He not the kind of king Pilate thinks.
Though Pilate could prove no crime, in order to keep the peace and absolve himself of any responsibility in the death of an innocent man, he determined to allow the people to choose which prisoner they wanted released. This was the chance of a lifetime – a choice between Jesus, the Son of the Father (God), and another "Jesus" named Barabbas (meaning, "son of the father"). A perfect parallel: two popular men, both "son of the father." Persuaded by their leadership, the crowd chose Barabbas.
In this account, we are confronted with one of the most hideous of revelations of human depravity in all of Scripture. The 'free-will' of man will always choose that which is self-seeking and self-atoning. Man shows what he truly is apart from the grace of God when, in the voice of that mob, he collectively cries out, "Crucify Him … and release to us Barabbas." For one brief moment in history, man, the creature, is given the opportunity to dispose of God according to the true state and desire of his collective heart. Every generation offers the people of God this same choice – Jesus and another Jesus; and the trial of every age is her choice of which Jesus she wants.